


Love Like the Oregon Trail

by AmandaCritelliWestphal



Category: Check Please! (Webcomic)
Genre: Adam Birkholtz is a big boy with big feelings, But also a goober with little to no game, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-18
Updated: 2017-12-18
Packaged: 2019-02-16 18:47:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,583
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13059966
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AmandaCritelliWestphal/pseuds/AmandaCritelliWestphal
Summary: In which Adam Birkholtz just wants to get his new good buddy laid, because Bitty deserves to be happy, and that's totally just a Buddies Thing to do. Right?





	Love Like the Oregon Trail

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Lasenby_Heathcote](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lasenby_Heathcote/gifts).



> Happy Sawesome Santa! Thanks to imamaryanne for the beta.
> 
> And this title...well, once I had the image of "relationships are a new terrritory" in my head, the idea of Holster angrily playing Oregon Trail and not giving up until he doesn't die of dysentery stuck. I almost called it O, Pioneers!
> 
> I really hope you like this! 
> 
> Oh, and beginning dialogue is straight from the comic, so credit to Ngozi.

Adam cringed as he stood in his towel, listening to Ransom try to encourage Bitty. Jack had really laid into the kid; Adam had felt uncomfortable just witnessing his captain’s temper and it hadn’t even been directed at him.

“He’ll go back to regularly scheduled levels of bitchy after the first game,” he added, putting his shower stuff on the shelf of his locker.

“Hey, when a bro’s dad is Bad Bob, a bro’s gonna turn into a fucking hockey Nazi every once in awhile,” Shitty piped up.

Bitty raised his eyes from his left skate and asked, “...who’s Bad Bob?”

Three heads moved as if on a swivel to turn and look at him. 

Adam was caught up wondering how on earth, with Jack Zimmermann being the main draw of the Samwell Men’s Hockey Program, one of his teammates apparently had no idea where he came from.

“...before the football team locked me in a utility closet overnight in the 7th grade.”

Adam snapped back to attention, now looking at Bitty with concern on his face. What the shit had he just said?

He finished dressing while Shitty and Ransom gave Bitty the quick-and-dirty about Bob Zimmermann’s playing career. Adam’s mind was still stuck on the football team and the utility closet. How small had the kid been back then, he wondered, if he’s still this small now? No wonder he folds every time someone comes at him, he thought, grabbing his backpack with a little more force than necessary. He decided that, even though Shitty seemed to have taken Bitty under his wing, he’d keep an eye on him too. 

And Bitty was fun, he realized after a couple weeks. He opened up a little more, let a little more of his personality come through. He could be bitingly sarcastic one moment, nothing but sunshine and kindness the next. Adam was happy to have someone else to sing along with-Shitty did NOT count, Shitty couldn’t carry a tune in a two-handled bucket. Bitty had said that one day after begging Shitty to stop trying to harmonize with Sia. And if Bitty’s eyes lit up and his face flushed with happiness during those moments, Holster was just happy to see his friend enjoying himself. Bitty still had these moments though, where it was like he remembered something and pulled back and would get real quiet. Like with Winter Screw, he and Ransom took their responsibility to help their bro hook up with someone quality very seriously. But Bitty just made some hasty excuse and ran off. Well, he was young still, and a little shy. They’d find a nice girl for him, someone who could get him to open up. Maybe Esther would know somebody. He just wanted Bitty to have a good time. He deserved it, after whatever it was that compelled him to get the hell out of Georgia just to end up dealing with Jack Zimmermann. 

This process, he thought, became exponentially easier once Bitty told him and Ransom (after Shitty, of course, and Adam pushed down the unexpected rush of jealousy that filled him at that) that he was gay. Samwell was full of gay and bisexual dudes. Adam knew that for an actual, confirmed fact, he just tended to hook up with women more than men. After a short discussion with Ransom, they decided to Screw Bitty with a guy that Adam had hooked up with as a frog. He’d been fun and nice, and, as Adam recalled, gave excellent head. 

Adam opened the door to the Haus quietly, mindful of the time of night. Esther had said he could stay the night after they were done, but Adam didn't want to set that precedent. She was nice enough, but staying over was Relationship Territory, and he didn't want that with Esther. He was creeping past the living room when he saw the shadow of a figure sitting in the chair.

“There had better not be a fucking lax bro in my fucking house right now,” he threatened, striding toward the light switch and flipping them on. 

He saw Bitty hastily wiping his eyes, and Adam didn't think it was just from the sudden brightness.

“Hey! You half scared the life outta me, what are you doing back tonight?” Bitty asked, forcing a smile onto his face.

“Dude, what’re you doing here this late? You okay?”

Adam walked further into the room and sat down on the edge of the couch closest to the chair and gave Bitty an appraising eye.

“You've looked better, buddy. What happened?”

Bitty’s smile fell, and he looked down at his feet, which Adam belatedly noticed were bare.

“My date bailed on me after he got drunk and threw up on my shoes after less than two hours. Got my socks, too.”

“Damn, Bits. I'm sorry. He didn't act like that back when we were freshmen, I thought he'd be good to you. How'd you get here?”

“Ran into Jack outside the dance. He walked me back here before disappearing off to bed.”

“For fucks sake, did he at least show you where the washer is? He couldn't have grabbed you some clean socks to borrow?”

Bitty just sat quietly, and Adam’s frustration slipped away. 

“Hey, come on upstairs. I'll grab you some socks. Nothing else will fit, but we can probably steal something from Shitty’s dresser if you want some sweatpants or a shirt.”

Bitty nodded and got up, looking exhausted. Adam rummaged through Shitty’s clothes before finding the smallest things he owned. Bitty would still swim in them, but at least he wouldn't drown like he would in anything Adam owned.

They continued up to the attic, and Bitty paused.

“Is Ransom not here?”

“Nah, he never comes home after Screw, it's fine.”

Bitty sat down on the edge of the bottom bunk while Adam found a pair of clean socks and tossed them toward Bitty.

He pulled them on, and then asked, very quietly,

“You dated him when you were a frog?”

Adam sat down next to Bitty, his weight shifting the mattress so Bitty ended up leaning slightly towards him.

“It wasn't really dating. We hooked up a couple times, but like, we weren't food-and-a-movie, cuddling-while-we-sleep kind of dating.”

Bitty nodded, and then said,

“Thank you for trusting me with this moment.”

Adam burst out laughing.

“Is that what Shitty said to you? Fucker must recycle his material, that's what he said to me when I told him I'm bi.”

A smile, a small one, broke across Bitty’s face. 

“I was just glad he said anything nice. It felt like a risk I could take? Like the odds were good he wouldn't react badly, but…”

Adam turned to look Bitty square in the face.

“Dude. If anyone gives you shit. ANYONE. About being yourself. You tell me. I don't care, I will fight all of Georgia, because that shit is not okay.”

Bitty looked away, and to Adam’s horror, began wiping at his face. 

“Oh shit, Bitty. I didn't mean to make you cry. Jesus, come here, man,” Adam said, putting an arm around Bitty and pulling him carefully into his side.

After a minute, Bitty sighed.

“Sorry, it's just...guys who are built like you generally weren't threatening to beat people up on my behalf, growing up. Looking at you, you'd’ve fit right in. But lord, for all you look like them, you've got a softer inside than my mama’s meringue.”

Adam laughed quietly, and said “I'm not lying, I'll knock them around. Your town is full of assholes if they couldn't see how great you are.”

They sat like that, cuddled up together, until Adam noticed Bitty’s breathing had slowed down. He tried to move them so they were more comfortable, only for Bitty to snuffle sleepily, 

“I sh’ go back t’my dorm.”

“You're fine,” Adam hushed him. “Go back to sleep.”

Bitty buried his face into the blanket and curled up into a ball on his side, barely awake at all.

Adam got up and climbed the ladder to the top bunk, to sleep alone, wishing he could have just stayed down in his bed with his arm around Bitty. He considered going back down, but cuddling your sleeping friend without his knowledge seemed like something Shitty would yell at him for.

That thought kept him from resting well, waking alert every time he heard Bitty roll over. Finally, around six, he gave up and swung his legs over the side to hop down. Unfortunately, he landed directly on the squeaky board and suddenly Bitty was awake, sitting straight up.

“Oh! I am so sorry, I didn't mean to kick you outta your own bed!” Bitty exclaimed, mortified.

“It's okay. I mean, I kind of wanted to stay, but you were barely awake and I didn't want you to freak out when you woke up.”

“...you wanted to stay?”

Adam shrugged. “It was a nice cuddle.”

Bitty huffed out a laugh and turned pink. “Well,” he said, “thanks for being gentle with me my first time.”

Adam’s face lit up and he flopped down next to Bitty, raising his eyebrows.

“Literally anytime.”

He slung an arm around Bitty’s shoulders. 

“I'm thinking food,” he continued. “And then Netflix.”

Bitty took a breath before asking, “Food-and-a-movie Netflix? Or Netflix-and-chill Netflix?”

Adam briefly hugged Bitty closer, smiling wide. 

“Have you ever been to Jerry’s for brunch? I'm about to rock your world.”

Bitty grinned, and replied, "Please do."


End file.
